Testing a Theory
by ellamo
Summary: House tests a theory about Cameron.


He is most attracted to her at three am, when she's been up for almost 24 hours and her hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail and her super sweet exterior has dulled into something sharper and snappier.

She's halfway through a rant about his lack of sensitivity toward their patient when he starts to laugh. She looks infuriated and he stops laughing abruptly when he realizes that he wants very much to kiss her right now.

He shoves a chair across the room and barks out something barely coherent and stomps away.

She starts to follow after him, but both of their pagers erupt into rapid beeps and they spend the next hour dealing with a blood-spewing teenager.

*

"You laughed, and then you got mad," Cameron says. It's going on six and even the smeared remnants of makeup are gone because she had to wash her face after the kid got a little sloppy with his up-chucking. It was a disgusting and welcome distraction for House. "Why?"

"Because you stopped being funny and started being annoying," House says.

*

It's two in the afternoon and the case is solved and the team has the rest of the day off. Chase and Foreman are beating a hasty retreat almost before the kid is out the door, but Cameron hangs around to finish up the charts.

House, who went home at five past six in the morning and slept for five hours, finds her asleep on his desk at three-fifteen in the afternoon. Her ponytail is so sloppy that it's almost undone and her hair is oily but still pretty, framing her face just so.

He sits on the edge of his desk and tries to decide how to wake her. A poke with his cane would do it. So would hitting play on his cd player, or he could just kick the chair and send her tumbling to the ground.

He gets up and limps out of the room, shutting the door softly behind him.

*

When he comes back at four she hasn't moved. He puts a soda and a turkey sandwich down on the desk and then sits in his lounger and enjoys his ruben while he plays a video game with the sound turned off.

*

It's almost five when Wilson comes in. He barely gets the first syllable of House's name out when House hushes him.

"She's asleep," he says, nodding to Cameron at his desk.

Wilson makes a face. "Her neck is going to be killing her later."

House shrugs and goes back to his game, speaking quietly but not whispering. "Not my problem."

"Why... how long has she been there?" Wilson is still staring at Cameron.

"Couple hours." House says.

"And you left her there?"

"Yep."

"Can I ask why?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

Wilson makes a frustrated gesture and then leaves.

*

"House?" Cameron says, lifting her head. The first thing she sees is a paper cup with a pool of condensation around it. "It's dark outside."

"Yep," House says. He's been up, walked around, bugged Cuddy, and come back.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Six hours. Hungry? Got you a sandwich, but it wasn't hot to begin with so I don't think it being cold will be a problem."

She stretches and makes a face. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

He shrugs. "Because you looked so gosh darned cute drooling on my desk."

"So last night you're mad at me, today I'm cute?"

"I can be mad at you and think you're cute at the same time. That is assuming I was actually mad at you, which I wasn't."

Cameron rubs her eyes and fixes her ponytail. "Ugh, I feel disgusting. I should go home."

Contrary to her words, she starts to unwrap the sandwich.

"Yeah, man, I can smell you from here." House says.

For a split second, Cameron actually looks worried, then she relaxes. "No you can't."

She polishes off the sandwich in no time at all. "Thank you."

"Thank Wilson, I stole ten bucks out of his wallet." He says, still staring at his PSP.

"Are you even playing that thing, or just using it to avoid eye contact with me?"

"Don't flatter yourself." He flips the game around so she can see the colorful blurs on the screen, and pointedly stares at her. "Go home. Take a shower. Get some real sleep."

She covers a yawn with her hand. "Thanks, I think I will."

*

She's stumbling out of bed at three am. She doesn't bother to ask who is knocking at her door, just cracks it open. "House?"

"Yep," House says, standing in front of her apartment with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"What do you want?"

"Needed to see if you were awake."

"Of course I'm awake, you've been pounding on my door for five minutes."

"Okay, needed to see what you were wearing then."

"House!" Cameron opens the door the rest of the way and glares at him, one hand on her hip. "Did you seriously just wake me up at three in the morning when I'm coming off of a two-day shift just to-"

She stops talking abruptly when his mouth lands on hers. She gasps into the kiss, more shock than real pleasure, and shoves him back. "What the hell?"

He grins at her, unashamed. "Needed to test a theory."


End file.
